The Importance of Knowledge in Data Recovery

July 27, 2022July 26, 2022 by Aaron Hook

In this post, I wanted to share a client’s story that, unfortunately, is not all that rare in this industry. There are a lot of computer repair shops and even some data recovery shops that don’t exactly know what they are doing when it comes to data recovery. They may have outdated knowledge or knowledge in a particular area, but if there are gaps in their knowledge and they don’t know it, the results can be disastrous. My brother-in-law referred one of his friends to me who had a hard drive full of photos and important work documents that had stopped working out of the blue. The drive had stopped showing up and he needed the data from the drive. The client had taken the entire computer into a computer repair shop to see if they could get it working again. The repair shop told him that the drive was bad and asked if he wanted data recovery services. He approved the data recovery process but was told a while later that the drive was … Read more

Beeping Seagate ST3500418AS Data Recovery Steps

July 8, 2022 by Aaron Hook

As you can see reading through this blog, beeping Seagate hard drives are almost always drives with stuck heads. I have an entire page dedicated to beeping hard drives if you want to learn more about the issue. The beeping sound comes from the platters not being able to spin up, which can be caused by a couple of different things: Power supply issue. If the drive is not receiving enough power, it will not be able to spin up properly. This can cause beeping or buzzing sounds. Power cable issue. While this is usually not the issue, something as simple as a bad cable can cause the hard drive to beep. Bent spindle. If the drive was dropped, sometimes the spindle can become bent which causes the drive to not be able to spin up. Failed motor. This is unusual, but it does happen. If the motor fails to work properly it will not spin up the drive and you will get a buzzing or beeping sound. An issue with the PCB. The PCB … Read more

Just Stopped Working ST8000DM004 Data Recovery

June 30, 2022June 29, 2022 by Aaron Hook

I remember the good old days when a “big” hard drive had about 120GB of capacity. Now when I get a big drive in, I am looking at somewhere from 2TB to 12TB of capacity. This particular ST8000DM004 data recovery was for an 8TB drive that had been inside an external enclosure. ST8000DM004 Just Stopped Working The Seagate hard drive was in use by a videographer based out of Wichita. They work on marketing and shoot HD video that is then stored on this 8TB ST8000DM004 hard drive. Unfortunately, the hard drive just stopped working one day, and they were not able to access any of their files. The drive had been working great prior to the issue, then suddenly would not be recognized by the computer. They weren’t even able to get the computer to recognize it enough to run software-based recovery methods on it. Due to the 8TB capacity, this ST8000DM004 data recovery would fall under our Standard+ recovery rate. While this rate is a little more than our Standard recovery rate, it … Read more

Simple Seagate ST320LT007 Data Recovery

June 22, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This Seagate ST320LT007 came in for data recovery from a client located nearby in Wichita, Kansas. The client needed the important work documents that were stored on the drive, but they could get gain access to the hard drive using their computer. Any computer that the drive was connected to would not find the hard drive. The hard drive was reported to sound normal, but the computers would not recognize it at all. These thin Seagate ST320LT007 drives commonly have hardware issues, so I was ready for the worst when it arrived and started with my diagnosis. A lot of these thin drives will get stuck heads, damaged heads, or other internal issues. But in this case, it was something else causing the problem. After discussing the project with the client, he decided to bring it in for my affordable data recovery service. Seagate ST320LT007 Diagnosis The hard drive did indeed spin up and sound normal, but it would not ID on my PC-3000. It did get ready, but that was as far as it … Read more

ST1000DM003 Seagate Hard Drive Recovery

June 13, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This Seagate hard drive recovery project had the model number ST1000DM003. It came in from a local customer that needed their user data recovered. The client had initially taken their dead drive to a computer repair shop to have it diagnosed, but the repair shop told them that the recovery process was beyond their capabilities. Seagate Hard Drive Recovery This particular repair shop used to recommend one of the big data recovery companies that required you to ship your drive out to their California lab and would give you a quote once it arrived. The quotes from these big companies generally start at around $800 and go up into the thousands. A drive like this one would usually receive a quote of about $1200 for the recovery process. I went out to his particular repair shop and told them about my at-home cleanroom environment, my PC-3000 by Ace Labs, and my 10+ years of experience as a data recovery technician. They decided to start referring people to me as I was local, and as an … Read more

Budget ST1000LM010 Cleanroom Data Recovery

June 6, 2022May 30, 2022 by Aaron Hook

The call came in for this ST1000LM010 with the description of a clicking hard drive that would not show up on the computer. The client had already received a quote from a larger data recovery company of $1500-2400 for a cleanroom data recovery, in particular, a head swap. So he was especially pleased to get our affordable cleanroom data recovery quote of $699. I let him know that clicking on one of these drives doesn’t always mean bad heads, but if it did indeed need a head swap then our lab recovery rate of $699 would apply. Cleanroom Data Recovery This Seagate ST1000LM010 FreePlay drive is part of the Sentosa family of hard drives. I have a lot of experience recovering these hard drives. I see them with firmware issues as well as internal issues like bad heads. Sometimes you will get behavior that sounds like internal parts issues, and it will end up being an odd firmware problem. I received the hard drive and started with a physical inspection. Because the drive was reported … Read more

2TB Seagate Expansion Stopped Showing Up – Expert Recovery Without Head Swap

May 24, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This Seagate Expansion stopped showing up when connected to a computer. The client first brought the drive to a computer repair shop for diagnostics and was told that it would be best to go to a professional data recovery lab to get the data back from this drive. The repair shop said it sounded like the drive may have bad heads, and they recommended us for having an affordable clean room recovery rate. Seagate Expansion Stopped Showing Up This particular drive is one of the Rosewood model Seagate drives that are found inside the external USB drives called the Expansion Portable Hard Drive. These Rosewood drives are fairly common, and we do tend to see more data recoveries being needed on these drives than some other model drives. I cover the reasons behind the seemingly higher than usual failure rate in this Rosewood blog post, but basically, the issues with the drives are complex firmware and fragile parts likely due to the drive being designed to be as thin as possible. Recovery diagnosis Once the … Read more

Professional Seagate Data Recovery

May 16, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This last Tax season was a busy time here at Yellow Brick Data Recovery. A lot of people try to get old receipts and other tax related documents off of drives they have been stored in and find there is an issue with the drive. We get drives from all over the country during this time via our mail-in service. Seagate Data Recovery A call came in from a client in Colorado who explained their external Seagate hard drive had stopped working suddenly and they needed a Seagate data recovery service so they could access their important files in time for tax season. It was reported that the drive would spin up as it should, but would not be recognized by the computer at all. The client had even tried removing the ST2000DM001 hard drive from inside the Seagate external enclosure and plugging it directly into a computer. They thought maybe the drive wasn’t receiving enough power or there was some other issue with the hard drive enclosure. Unfortunately, the drive continued to not show … Read more

ST2000DM008 Data Recovery – Unique Case Study

May 16, 2022May 3, 2022 by Aaron Hook

This ST2000DM008 data recovery was for a Seagate BarraCuda drive that just stopped working randomly for the client. They took their computer to a shop local to them when the drive stopped working and were told that the data was not accessible and would need professional data recovery in order to get the important data off of it. Recovering Seagate Drive with Firmware Issue This client needed their photos and documents off the failed Seagate hard drive, so they called us to see if we could help. Thankfully we were able to offer an affordable recovery option that was successful in recovering their important files! If you have an st2000dm008 not showing up, we can help you get your data back. Diagnosing the hard drive for recovery Once the ST2000DM008 data recovery drive arrived I started with a visual inspection and found that everything looked great. The drive sounded perfect when powered on with no odd seeking sounds. Connecting the ST2000DM008 hard drive to the PC-3000 showed the drive was not getting ready. When a … Read more

Unusual ST1000LM035 Firmware Issues Recovery

May 12, 2022April 19, 2022 by Aaron Hook

There are times (rare, but they do happen) when I receive a drive with a firmware issue that is beyond my capabilities to fix. Firmware issues can be very routine (like the Module 32 WD Slow Fix firmware issue), to something like this ST1000LM035 firmware situation where I had to contact the makers of the PC-3000 data recovery rig I have to help with the firmware fix. Recovering ST1000LM035 Firmware Issue This ST1000LM035 Seagate hard drive was a mail-in from Houston, Texas. The client needed to get their personal photos and school documents from the Seagate drive that was inside their laptop. The drive was no longer mounting and the other repair and recovery shops they had gone to said the drive was not recoverable. They reported the drive had just stopped working and had not been dropped or damaged in any way. Inspecting the drive for recovery When I received the drive, I completed a visual inspection and found that the drive looked physically perfect. No issues were visible with the heads, platters, PCB, … Read more